Regional

Vietnam frees two high-profile dissidents

HANOI: Vietnam has released two political activists, the latest high-profile dissidents to be freed as the communist nation comes under increasing international pressure over its human rights record.

Blogger Nguyen Tien Trung said that he and Vi Duc Hoi, a Communist Party official turned democracy campaigner, had been freed on Saturday.

Trung, 30, was serving a seven-year term in Ho Chi Minh City for “subverting the people’s administration”, while Hoi was jailed for five years for “anti-state propaganda”.

“My family and I did not expect I would be released so early,” Trung said, adding that he thought his release would be timed with an amnesty marking the anniversary on April 30 of the end of the war with the United States.

Last week Vietnamese authorities freed Cu Huy Ha Vu, one of the country’s most prominent dissidents who had been jailed for seven years for “anti-state activity” after trying to sue the prime minister.

The US embassy said he had left for America, without giving further details.

The one-party state is regularly denounced by rights groups and Western governments for its intolerance of political dissent and violations of freedom of religion.